An N.B.A. Gift on Christmas: Warriors at Cavaliers

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Stephen Curry guarding LeBron James last June. Curry and the Warriors get another reminder of how a great season went so bad at the end when they play Cleveland on Christmas day.CreditBob Donnan/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

All right, all right, you can wake up now. Look! Russell Westbrook doing something insane!

Let’s get into some games.

Have a question or a suggestion for this column? Send an email to NBAweek@nytimes.com, or reach me on Twitter: @Jonesieman.

Game of the Week

Golden State at Cleveland, Sunday, 2:30 p.m. Eastern, ABC

For a website that belongs to something called the Cheezburger Network, Knowyourmeme.com is surprisingly detailed. Its entry on one of the bigger basketball-related memes of the last six months — “The Warriors Blew a 3-1 Lead” — runs nearly 500 words.

The joke refers to the Golden State Warriors’ epic collapse against the Cleveland Cavaliers in last season’s N.B.A. finals. But there’s a reason it is a meme and not just a fact. There’s something staggering about a team with the most regular-season wins and the first unanimous M.V.P. becoming the first to squander a 3-1 lead in the finals.

Despite those two glorious records, high honors for the team and the superstar Stephen Curry, the Warriors’ season still ended with a heaping helping of shame — in the form of a distinction nobody wanted.

A slide that embarrassing can’t be confined to the world of sports. The joke showed up after Brexit. It showed up before a presidential debate, and possibly at the White House. It even showed up, apparently, in Drake’s texts.

Warriors fans have reason to think the meme won’t live much longer. After adding Kevin Durant, Golden State may be even better this season than last. The Dubs are scoring more per game than they did last season. They have the league’s best record, and the kind of chip on their shoulders that you only get when … you blow a 3-1 lead in the N.B.A. finals.

Meanwhile, the Cavs, whom they will meet for the first time this season on Christmas, look solid, if not spectacular. Cleveland has the best record in the East, but not by a particularly wide margin. If you watch them casually, they don’t bear the hallmarks of a superteam. They muddle through games. They drop behind teams they have no business losing to, and they even lose.

But if you watch closely, you realize that the Cavaliers also could be even better than last season. Kevin Love is averaging six more points, shooting better and working hard on defense and on the boards. Kyrie Irving, still only 24, has taken another leap, and is on the short list of the league’s best point guards. As for LeBron James, well, the King stay the King.

More to the point, the Cavaliers seem as if they simply don’t worry about the regular season. James has been to the N.B.A. finals six times in a row, and he knows what matters. Sometimes that means getting an easy regular-season win to maintain the top seed: Against the Lakers on Saturday, James laid low until it looked as if Los Angeles might win. Then he scored 16 points in the fourth quarter to swipe back a victory. But James, Irving and Love didn’t even travel to Memphis earlier in the week, and Cleveland dropped a game to the Grizzlies.

You can rest assured that the Cavs’ big three won’t be taking Christmas off except for an injury. If the Warriors do have an advantage, it is their depth, and Cleveland’s stars will have to show up for their team to compete.

To recap: It’s the last two N.B.A. champions. They’re meeting for the first time this season. It’s most likely a preview of the finals and a game that either team has a good chance to win. On Christmas.

Thank you, Santa. This is exactly what we wanted.

Three Others to Watch

San Antonio at Houston, Tuesday, 8 p.m. Eastern, NBATV

Were the aforementioned game not taking place, you could believe that the Rockets would be in the top slot. They’ve won 10 games in a row after snatching a victory away from the Minnesota Timberwolves in overtime on Saturday, shattering hearts that were already frozen over by the weather. The Rockets may be legitimately good, and not just an extension of James Harden’s beard. They’ll get a real test in San Antonio on Tuesday.

San Antonio at Los Angeles Clippers, Thursday, 10:30 p.m., TNT

Speaking of the Spurs, they’ve got a tough schedule this week. After that visit from the Rockets, they jet off to Los Angeles to take on the Clippers, who have won four of their last five after losing five of their previous seven.

League Pass Game of the Week: Toronto at Utah, Friday, 9 p.m.

In case you haven’t realized it, there are a lot of hot teams in the West. Utah is 8-2 in its last 10 games and has won four straight. It should be interesting to see how the Jazz match up with the Raptors, the East’s consistent second bananas, who also are 8-2 in their last 10 games.

Remembering Craig Sager

I was very saddened to hear of Craig Sager’s death last week. He started working for Turner Sports in 1990, which means he had covered the league since before I knew what basketball was. Even though I was aware he had been sick with leukemia for a long time, his death was still a surprise.

He was colorful and a good interviewer. With his cheerful attitude, enthusiasm for basketball and ability to laugh at himself, he embodied what I love about the N.B.A.